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Wellington Partners CERTIFIED

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FIRM OVERVIEW: Medium Private VC founded in 1998 based out of Munich, Germany (Europe)

FIRM DESCRIPTION: Beyond the glossy (and true!) corporate presentation (see below) there is a group of people who are passionate about what they do. Check us out on: www.wellington-partners.com
About Wellington Partners
Wellington Partners is one of the most successful pan-European venture capital firms. With some € 800 million under management and offices in London, Munich, Palo Alto and Zurich, the firm invests into companies throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders, in the areas of Digital Media, Technology and Life Sciences. Since 1998, Wellington Partners has invested in more than 100 companies, including publicly traded Actelion, Evolva, SAF and XING and successful privately held companies like Alando (acquired by eBay), Ciao (acquired by Microsoft), Grandis (acquired by Novartis) and ImmobilienScout24 (acquired by Deutsche Telekom).

Posted by
felixhaas
on 2008-05-30

PUBLIC:

Wellington invested in my company already at seed stage and re-invested in the series A. Eric Archambeau is the partner and board member.

Our partnership with Wellington is a very positive experience. Eric Archambeau can open doors at the highest levels, both in Europe and in Silicon Valley. He is a super sharp thinker and his advice, network and entreprenerial experience is very valuable. He is to-the-point and extremely well connected - both in Europe but also in Silicon Valley. He has a very successful entrepreneur/CEO background himself, so he can and will make recommendations to you (and its worthwhile to seriously listen to him) but he will accept you if you have a different opinion.

I can highly recommend to work with Wellington and especially with Eric Archambeau. If you look for a top-notch european VC with a strong global network, look no further.

Posted by
jhi247
on 2007-07-05

PUBLIC:

Wellington has invested in our firm a few years back. Frank sits on our board. We have only good things to say about them: They are nice people, very supportive, very competent, extremely well networked. I consider Wellington to be one of the top European funds and probably the top German fund.

Wellington is probably THE most well known and successful VC fund in Germany - in their roster you'll find companies like Alando.de (which was sold to eBay and effectively became eBay Germany) and many others. The people at Wellington are very smart and definitely know what they are talking about...

With this status unfortunately comes a "hard to reach" status - it's definitely not easy to get into their face.

Posted by
pieperp
on 2008-06-11

PUBLIC:

Wellington invested in the seed round of our company as lead investor and just recently we closed a Series B with them.

They invested in our company at a very early stage, when we had a working technology with potential â€" but that was it. In our view Wellington â€" and specifically JÃ¶rg Ãœberla - was the only VC in the European scene, who were capable and willing to dig deep into the technology and then do their own qualified assessment on its potential.

Once they then had invested there was full commitment and support to get to the next stage. I always considered their partners (and not only the managing invested partner) to be among our best sales capacities. They ran up and down Europe and Silicon Valley to get us connected to the right folks. At the same time they were tough and demanding on the expectations side without overdoing it (but hey, thatâ€™s what itâ€™s all about as well, right"). With JÃ¶rg Ãœberla we always had someone who would listen to sane arguments (but they better be saneâ€¦) and willing to support entrepreneurial and creative business decisions.

This was one of the major elements that helped us get to the market positioning and business model we successfully run today and which was the basis for their ongoing commitment in the second round. We actually turned down a couple of Sand-Hill investors and rather preferred to stick to the trusted and capable partner we had with Wellington.

So my advice: if you want to go beyond the usual copy cat and consider your technology globally relevant, Wellington is THE partner to go with.

We got invited for a pitch and met Mr. Boehnke. A straight guy. We got a fast and clear answer with an explanation why Wellington will not invest at this state of the venture. I think this is the second best option when having a pitch. At least no waste of time. I can recommend Wellington at least as a fair partner in the early phase of discussions

Posted by
Anonymous
on 2009-06-29

Posted by
donahuj
on 2008-07-10

PUBLIC:

Bart Markus at Wellington served on the board of a virtualization software company I ran which IBM ultimately acquired. Bart and Wellington are beyond high value-add. Bart made several high-profile introductions for our company, introduced a very high-profile x-CEO of a large company as a candidate to join our board, and helped substantially with strategic introductions and major US and Europe-based industry players. Bart is also highly pragmatic and balanced good understanding of operations with a very keen deal sense. The Wellington team was good to deal with from beginning through the M&A process when we were having to work with our VCs on the acquisition terms, escrow, etc. I have maintained a relationship with Bart and would be honored to have him serve as a board member on a future company. Wellington also has a particular skill at taking companies headquartered in Europe and moving operations / headquarters to the US to make the companies more viable for US acquisition or exit scenarios, and Wellington frequently syndicates with top US VC firms such as Kleiner and Sequoia (and has the relationships and track record to be able to do so). If you have the choice, take a deal with Wellington.

Wellington was our first investor from the time we had been a no revenue, no product company. Joerg Ueberla has been involved from the first pitch following years of being a valuable board member.

Wellington proved to be a reliable partner to us, they do what they tell you they will do.

Joerg Ueberla is very smart, good to work with and supported our company in a very constructive way through some rough waters. He is able to work himself into markets and supports focus of the company. Decisions are done on a pragmatic way and he knows that live is a give ant take. I can clearly recommend to work with Wellington, I think they are no 1 in Germany, with nobody getting even close ( I have worked with several...).

Posted by
vanbeurdenjoep
on 2008-01-03

PUBLIC:

I have worked with Wellington for over three years, which was a very positive experience. Principal on the deal was Bart Markus who is a sharp thinker and good at giving -and receiving- straight and honest feedback.

Wellington is a partnership in the real sense of the word. The entrepreneurs have access not just to the principal, but to all partners. They also actively promote cross fertilization, exchange of ideas and best practices between their portfolio companies. This is done at the yearly CEO conference and on a case-by-case basis depending on the needs of the company.

Dealing with Bart for a Series C investment led by Wellington (now closed) was great since he was knowledgable and straightforward in showing his enthusiasm as well as voicing his concerns. He also made an effort to make sure he met commitments on how long various steps would take. I would recommend Wellington and Bart.

Posted by
mike.beunder
on 2007-10-22

PUBLIC:

Wellington invested in my previous company. Well organized and transparent progress. Also very honest feedback along the way. Learned a lot from them and appreciated they way they were supporting their CEOs. They also work well with other VCs.

I was working on a CHF4m Series A for a Medtech start-up. Syndicate was there and discussions began on the term sheet. At this time Wellington hears about us through a Swiss investors platform (CTI-invest) and calls me for info on the company. I was not too interested, well advanced with the others and not willing to embark on a new process for several months. Money was getting very tight. They persisted, claiming to move fast. They checked the info I sent and shortly thereafter flew in to visit us. Two months later we signed a term sheet for CHF8m together with another co-lead investor. Normally painful DD, but constructive again. Deal closed. So: They have been fast, no B-S, realistic, not playing games (a little good cop/ bad cop when we visited them of course, fair enough). This was over 1 year ago. I wanted to wait before writing an enthusiastic post, you never know how people turn when they are in. None of that. It has been a great year of constructive, straight-forward and pleasant collaboration.

Posted by
moshix
on 2008-04-14

PUBLIC:

Bart Markus is a rockstar. He's very sharp, asks the right questions and moves very quickly thru the DD process. He knows a lot of people and doesn't scare away to look at unconventional investments. Even though Wellington is a Europe-targeted fund, they will from time to time also do a US investment.

Posted by
bettinahein
on 2007-11-19

PUBLIC:

We pitched to Wellington a couple of years ago. Joerg Ueberla and Johannes von Borries (as an associate) handled our discussions. Ueberla was very knowledgeable in our space and their process was fair, efficient and responsive. Above all, they were respectful and even genuinely nice. Even though the process didn't lead to an investment, we kept in friendly contact for years.